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Installation of mod_perl-enabled Apache Without Superuser Privileges Page 7

Written By
thumbnail Stas Bekman
Stas Bekman
Jul 14, 2000
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The simplest way to do this is to quit the interactive shell by typing
quit and reenter it. But if you insist here is how to make it work
without quitting the shell. You really want to skip this 🙂

If you want to continue working with CPAN without
quitting the shell, you must:

  1. remember the value
    of makepl_arg
  2. change it to suit
    your new installation
  3. build and install
    mod_perl
  4. restore it after
    completing mod_perl installation

this is quite a cumbersome task as of this writing, but I believe that
CPAN.pm will eventually be improved to handle this more easily.

So if you are still with me, start the shell as usual:

  % perl -MCPAN -eshell

First, read the value of the makepl_arg:

  cpan> o conf makepl_arg 
  PREFIX=/home/stas

It will be something like PREFIX=/home/stas if you configured
CPAN.pm to install modules locally. Save this value:

  cpan> o conf makepl_arg.save PREFIX=/home/stas

Second, set a new value, to be used by the mod_perl installation process.
(You can add parameters to this line, or remove them, according to your needs.)
To wit:

  cpan> o conf makepl_arg 'DO_HTTPD=1 USE_APACI=1 EVERYTHING=1         PREFIX=/home/stas APACHE_PREFIX=/home/stas/apache'

Third, let CPAN.pm build and install mod_perl for you:

  cpan> install mod_perl

Fourth, reset the original value to makepl_arg. We do this by
printing the value of the saved variable and assigning it to
makepl_arg:

  cpan> o conf makepl_arg.save
  PREFIX=/home/stas

  cpan> o conf makepl_arg PREFIX=/home/stas

Not so neat, but a working solution. You could have written the value on a
piece of paper instead of saving it to makepl_arg.save, but you
are more likely to make a mistake that way.

References

About the Author

Stas Bekman is an author of
the mod_perl Guide and is currently
co-athoring a book about mod_perl for O’Reilly and
Associates, Inc
together with Eric
Cholet
. He is a member of the Apache
Software Foundation
. You can find more about his works and joys at his
personal web site.

thumbnail Stas Bekman

Stas Bekman is a ServerWatch contributor.

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